Category: Hands-on

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The Motrr Galileo is an interesting little device that doesn’t divulge much about its purpose by its looks alone. At first glance you might take it for a Bluetooth speaker or something similar. But you would be wrong. Indeed, it’s meant to connect to with your iPhone via Bluetooth but it has nothing to do with music.

The Galileo is a motorized stand that can be used to capture beautiful panoramas or timelapse videos. By mounting an iPhone or GoPro camera on the Galileo, you can capture video and photo footage with seamless motion that could even be remotely controlled. Read more »

The Oppo R5 shortly held the title of the world’s thinnest smartphone that it stole from the Gionee Elife S5.1 but later lost to the Vivo X5 Max. The R5 left the ambition of being the thinnest behind and came out with a limited edition gilded Oppo R5, which will only ever be produced in 10,000 units.

The Gilded R5 has a golden hue on its exposed metallic frame that runs around the sides of the handset. There are a few gold highlights, including the hardware keys below the display, the ring around the camera module and the Oppo logo on the back. Read more »

Huawei has been focused on shifting its lineup towards more upmarket segments, figuring out that’s where the real money is. The Honor 6, which recently showed up at our office, is one prime example of the Chinese company’s new strategy.

The smartphone immediately evokes comparisons to the Sony Xperia Z3 compact. Its a similar all-glass design that looks classy until you touch it, at which point it gets instantly covered in fingerprints. Read more »

Acer is perhaps better-known for its tablets, but the Liquid series of phones offer quality specs on a budget. The Acer Liquid Jade S is a surprisingly light 5″ mid-ranger with dual-SIM connectivity. It was released a few months after its Liquid Jade sibling and brings a number of improvements.

It adds LTE, moves to a 64-bit octa-core processor with double the RAM (2GB), doubles the storage (16GB) and tacks on a 5MP selfie camera. All in all, Liquid Jade S owners have what it takes to make non-S owners jealous. Read more »

Sometimes you have to start fresh to get it right, that’s what Samsung did with the Galaxy A series. They are all thin, with metal frames and go against Samsung’s very nature – they focus on looks and feel more than on features. Even so, the Samsung Galaxy A7 is pretty well loaded.

It’s a 5.5″ phablet that serves as a mid-range alternative to the Galaxy Note 4. Read more »

The Braven 805 wireless Bluetooth speaker is a colorful new addition to the manufacturer’s Design Series. The newcomer made its debut last month during CES in Las Vegas as part of a serious product onslaught by the Utah-based manufacturer.

Founded in 2011, Braven became part of the mobile accessories giant Incipio in the summer of 2013. Joining the bigger company has treated Braven quite well. Its product range has expanded to cover everything from ultra-rugged speakers to luxury offerings in a variety of shapes and sizes. Read more »

Xiaomi announced its next flagship duo – the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro – just a month ago and both gained massive attention. We’ve been waiting to get our hands on these devices and we finally got one – meet the Xiaomi Mi Note.

While not a flagship killer by vocation ZTE’s Blade S6 has a lot of potential for its $250 price tag.

It’s built around Qualcomm’s upper-midrange Snapdragon 615 chip that boasts a 64-bit architecture and octa-core prowess for on-demand power and battery preservation, 2GB of RAM, two nano-SIM card slots, a 13MP camera on the back and 5MP on the front along with a 5″ IPS display of 720p resolution. Read more »

One very interesting device made it to our office this week – the €180-worth Asus Fonepad 7 FE375CXG. It’s a nice hybrid between a slate and a smartphone with powerful hardware, a big 7″ display and dual-SIM telephony.

The Asus Fonepad 7 FE375CXG features a 7″ IPS HD display and is powered by the Intel Atom Z3530 chipset. The Intel platform offers a snappy quad-core 64-bit 1.3GHz processor and powerful PowerVR G6430 we’ve seen doing great within the Apple iPhone 5s. Read more »

The Asus Memo Pad 7 is a top-tier compact tablet with a 7″ 1200 x 1920px IPS display, 64-bit Intel Atom Z3560 chipset, 2GB of RAM, a 5MP camera and 16GB or 32GB of built in storage that can be expanded with a microSD card.

The Memo Pad 7 also features an attractive design with a textured back, a clean glass front and stereo speakers on the top and bottom (or the sides in landscape mode). Read more »

It seems Lenovo was not impressed with the Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus design because it released a smartphone that deliberately looks like the duo. But does it feel like the pair of Apple phones?

The Lenovo S90 Sisley has a unibody contruction with a glass front, aluminum chassis and very little plastic and just looks premium. It’s curved design is also very pleasant to hold, not just behold. Read more »

This is the Samsung Galaxy J1 – the latest entry-level offer by the company that’s set to headline Samsung’s low end on the market.

The phone is set to be priced very attractively and will come in three hardware versions – two will have a 64-bit Marvel Armada Mobile chipset with either single or dual-SIM options and the one we have with us here – a Spreadtrum chip with dual-core 1.2GHz processor and dual-SIM abilities. Read more »

Tech21 Evo Mesh case is part of the company’s extensive iPhone 6 lineup. The protective cover is made for users who like to keep their smartphone intact without breaking the bank for an all-out rugged solution.

Based in London, Tech21 creates mobile accessories with a science-first approach. The company has been in the business since 2005 and is the first to use shock-absorbing polymers in its products. Read more »

The Liberate XLBT are House of Marley’s first wireless headphones. The headset is the bigger brother of the Liberate on-ear model I reviewed recently.

Wireless headphones are becoming increasingly popular, so it is hardly a surprise that House of Marley wants a piece of the action. Hit past the break to find out if the Liberate XLBT headphones are worth your attention and money! Read more »

Xiaomi Redmi 2 has paid us a visit recently and we took it for a long spin. The Redmi 1S successor has lost some weight and body mass, it brings a 64-bit processor to the table and its dual-SIM capabilities don’t come at the expense of LTE connectivity.

Xiaomi Redmi 2 has the same 4.7″ 720p display as its 1S sibling, but runs on the Snapdragon 410 chipset with a quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 processor and Adreno 306 GPU. There is a flavor with 1GB of RAM and 8 gigs of storage, as well as a model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage. You can pick what suits you best. Read more »